Welcome to The 51st Annual CSI Show

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Welcome to The 51st Annual CSI Show and
Convention
Specifications and Corporate Memory Robert Paul
Dean, AIA, CSI, CCS Building Systems Design,
Inc. Booth 221
Baltimore, MD June 20-22, 2007
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The Construction Specifications Institute is a
Registered Provider with The American Institute
of Architects Continuing Education Systems.
Credit earned on completion of this program will
be reported to CES Records for AIA members.
Certificates of Completion for non-AIA members
available on request. This program is registered
with the AIA/CES for continuing professional
education. As such, it does not include content
that may be deemed or construed to be an approval
or endorsement by the AIA of any material of
construction or any method or manner of handling,
using, distributing, or dealing in any material
or product. Questions related to specific
materials, methods, and services will be
addressed at the conclusion of this presentation.

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• This program is a registered educational program
  with the Construction Specifications Institute of
  Alexandria, VA. The content within this program
  is not created or endorsed by CSI nor should the
  content be construed as an approval of any
  product, building method, or service. Information
  on the specific content can be addressed at the
  conclusion of this program, by the Registered
  Provider.
• Credit earned for completing this program will
  automatically be submitted to the CSI CEN.
  Completion certificates can be obtained by
  contacting the Provider directly.
• This logo and statement identify Provider
  programs registered with the CSI CEN and are
  limited to the educational program content.

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Learning Objectives

• Basic principles of preserving corporate memory
  through creation maintenance of an office
  master specification
• Techniques for incorporating project experiences
  in an office master
• Techniques for updating your office master
  without losing corporate memory
• Resources available

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Office Master Specifications

• What is an office master?
• Essentially, it is any set of specification
  sections that is intended for re-use on multiple
  projects
• In larger firms, an office master is typically
  used by a number of people and is used to
  establish/enforce office quality standards
• An office master may be intended for use without
  modification, but more typically is the starting
  point for individual projects
• An office master can serve as a repository for
  corporate memory and therefore should change over
  time with project experience

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Office Master Specifications

• Why is an office master a reasonable way to
  preserve corporate memory?
• Specs are text documents
• Master text can be modified to reflect lessons
  learned
• Notes can be added to record specifics of project
  experience pro and con.
• Separate documents, including drawings and
  photos, can be easily appended and retrieved with
  hyperlinks

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Office Master Specifications

• To be really useful, an office master must be
  carefully maintained
• Single point responsibility is critical
• There must be reasonable allowance for indirect
  time
• Feedback from project architects is important and
  should be encouraged

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Office Master Specifications

• What are the major problems associated with an
  office master?
• balancing need for standardization with need for
  keeping valid options
• figuring out how to present lessons learned in a
  way thats beneficial
• maximizing usefulness while minimizing effort
  spent in maintenance
• keeping it updated

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Office Master Specifications

• Whats wrong with simply reusing the last project
  spec?
• It really depends
• word processing or relational database?
• similarity of projects
• time elapsed
• Editing by deletion is riskier than editing by
  selection
• Its important to actually read each section
  regardless

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Office Master Specifications

• Some common problems with reuse of specs produced
  by word processing
• errors tend to accumulate
• updating can be spotty or nonexistent
• options and alternatives relevant to new
  projects tend to be overlooked because they have
  been deleted for earlier projects
• specific references to older project data are
  frequently not deleted

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Office Master Specifications

• So whats the right way to go about creating
  maintaining a set of office master
  specifications?
• select the basic approach word processing or
  relational database
• assign overall responsibility to one person
• subscribe to a commercial guide spec system as a
  starting point
• merge whatever you have thats unique or
  otherwise valuable with the commercial master
  into one system

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Office Master Specifications

• Organization of an Office Master Depends on Type
  of System
• Word processing system
• typically one file for each spec section
• occasionally multiple files for specific sections
• rarely multiple sets for different bldg. types
• Relational database system
• typically one file for entire project
• occasionally one file for each project type
• occasionally single section masters

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Office Master Specifications

• Commercial Guide Specifications
• MASTERSPEC, owned by AIA and managed by ARCOM
• BSD SpecLink, owned and managed by Building
  Systems Design, Inc.
• SPECTEXT, owned and managed by the Construction
  Sciences Research Foundation
• Unified Facilities Guide Specification (UFGS) and
  SpecsIntact, administered by USACE, NAVFAC, and
  NASA

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Office Master Specifications

• Commercial Guide Specifications
• MASTERSPEC word processing system with
  relational database add-ons
• BSD SpecLink pure relational database system
  by Building Systems Design, Inc.
• SPECTEXT word processing system with macro
  add-ons
• Unified Facilities Guide Specification (UFGS) and
  SpecsIntact word processing system with
  customized macro add-ons

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Office Master Specifications

• Commercial Guide Specifications
• MASTERSPEC word processing system with
  relational database add-ons
• BSD SpecLink pure relational database system by
  Building Systems Design, Inc.
• SPECTEXT word processing system with macro
  add-ons
• Unified Facilities Guide Specification (UFGS) and
  SpecsIntact word processing system with
  customized macro add-ons

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e-SPECS Designer by Interspec
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Incorporating Project Experience in Office Master
Specifications

• All Systems
• Modifying commercial master to
• eliminate options that should never be used
• add valid alternatives
• indicate mutually exclusive options
• Adding notes to
• explain when alternatives should be used
• provide background and history
• incorporate specific project experience
• Adding intelligence to expedite choices

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Incorporating Project Experience in Office Master
Specifications

• Customizing a Commercial Master
• Word processing systems
• eliminate undesirable options by deleting text
• add valid alternatives by inserting
• Choices within a paragraph
• Alternative paragraphs
• indicate mutually exclusive options (use color or
  insert notes)
• Relational database system
• eliminate undesirable options by excluding text
  or adding note
• add valid alternatives by inserting choices or
  adding paragraphs
• automate related new text by adding intelligent
  links
• indicate mutually exclusive options by adding
  intelligent links

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Incorporating Project Experience in Office Master
Specifications

• Customizing a Commercial Master
• Word processing systems
• add notes by using
• hidden text
• notes feature
• graphic device to differentiate notes from text
  (asterisks, text box, change in font, etc.)
• Relational database system
• add notes by using project notes feature
• hyperlinks to separate documents

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Incorporating Project Experience in Office Master
Specifications

• Customizing a Commercial Master
• Word processing systems
• add intelligence by
• inserting instructional notes
• using color coding to visually connect related
  text
• Relational database system
• add intelligence by
• linking text to turn on or highlight related text
  or exclude incompatible options
• using project notes to provide detailed
  instructions

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Office Master Specifications
Tactics for Establishing an Office Master

• After obtaining a subscription to a commercial
  master guide specification system
• Make a conscientious effort to incorporate the
  commercial updates into your office master on an
  ongoing basis
• Make changes to your office master learned from
  actual project experience
• Treat the office master as a valuable resource
  for the entire firm

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Office Master Specifications
Tactics for Establishing an Office Master

• Use the specs developed for a specific project as
  the starting point, and make modifications on an
  ongoing, as-needed basis
• Advantage Easiest way to get started
• Disadvantage Modifications evolve slowly
• Create a specific set of project specs (or
  multiple sets) that are intended from the outset
  to be the office master(s)
• Advantage Most likely to produce consistent
  specs
• Disadvantage Requires initial overhead investment

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Establishing an Office Master in Word Processing

• Augment commercial master by
• creating a master template for format, appearance
  of final sections
• applying format to master sections
• modifying sections as needed to meet office
  needs, standards
• add unique sections to match format of modified
  commercial master sections

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Establishing an Office Master in Word Processing

• Add valid alternatives
• insert options within a paragraph by using
  brackets
• provide mutually exclusive alternative paragraphs
• if new products are added, verify that Part 1 and
  Part 3 text is still appropriate
• if necessary, add corresponding text in other
  parts of the section
• Consider marking inappropriate alternatives,
  rather than deleting them, using
• notes
• text boxes
• color

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Establishing an Office Master in Word Processing

• Add notes that
• Explain alternatives
• Provide history of use
• Instruct on how to edit the document
• Distinguish the notes from master text by
• using hidden text
• separating notes from text by characters
• using color

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Set off notes by using distinctive characters
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Set off notes by using distinctive color
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Set options to display hidden text
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Establishing an Office Master in a Relational
Database System

• Basic Concepts
• Only one file per project
• Edit by selection, not deletion
• Links multiply productivity improve
  coordination
• Overlay structure avoids interference between
  data in commercial master and data in separate
  office master file
• Updating never affects office master data

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Relational Database Concepts
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Establishing an Office Master in a Relational
Database System

• Add valid alternatives
• insert options within a paragraph by using choice
  fields
• provide mutually exclusive alternative paragraphs
  with interactive links
• if new products are added, verify that Part 1 and
  Part 3 text is still appropriate
• if necessary, add corresponding text in other
  parts of the section and build links for
  selection
• Exclude inappropriate alternatives, rather than
  deleting them, and then add
• explanatory notes
• excluding links

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Establishing an Office Master in a Relational
Database System

• Add project notes that
• Explain alternatives
• Provide history of use
• Instruct on how to edit the document
• Distinguishing the notes from master text is
  unnecessary

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Office Master Specifications
Tactics for Maintaining an Office Master

• Making use of updates from commercial master
• Word processing systems
• compare each updated section with edited version
  in office master specification
• select and import changes needed for office
  master
• modify notes as necessary to reflect changes
• Relational database system
• install update
• open office master
• answer yes or no to update query
• yes updates without affecting custom edits
• no makes no changes, allows for subsequent
  review

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Relational Database Updating
Yes The project is updated automatically (but
user edits and additions are not affected)
No Project is not updated, but sections and
paragraphs that would be changed are marked for
later consideration
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Other Options for Office Masters

• Adding an intelligent checklist
• Insert options in logical, decision-making order
• Tag checklist paragraphs for non-printing status
  and selectability
• Add links to achieve automatic editing
• Test for desired results

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Other Options for Office Masters

• Adding hyperlinks to related Word documents
• Importing whole sections from word processing
• Assure that source document is formatted cleanly
  and consistently, then convert to .rtf
• Add any codes desired for automated choice
  creation, notes insertion then import
• Add tags for administrative reports
• Add links as required for automated reference
  standards, cross references, TOC, etc.

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Learning Objectives

• Basic principles of preserving corporate memory
  through creation maintenance of an office
  master specification
• Techniques for incorporating project experiences
  in an office master
• Techniques for updating your office master
  without losing corporate memory
• Resources available

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For more information, please contact. . .
Building Systems Design, Inc. 888-BSD-SOFT (888-27
3-7638) www.bsdsoftlink.com
Or visit us in Booth 221 at the CSI Show
This concludes the educational portion of this
presentation